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| Cleanup Efforts Still Continue Following Valentine's Day Fuel Spill In The Whitegate Community |
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| David Grimes | |
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It took a phone call to the Governor’s office to get the cleanup started, and 2 ½ weeks later you can still smell the diesel fuel and see the evidence of continuing cleanup efforts along Big Walker Creek in this tiny community of Whitegate, following a Valentine’s Day fuel spill.
It all started on February 14, when a diesel truck carrying 7,500 gallons of diesel fuel overturned in a curve on Rt. 42 in this Giles County community, spilling more than 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel and kerosene into the ground and near-by Big Walker Creek.
“We first heard about the spill Valentine’s Day morning around 8 a.m. when a state trooper and Giles County deputy came to our door and told us that there had been a wreck upstream,” said Creed Taylor. “The trooper told us that the entire contents had been spilled.”
According to Taylor, who lives at Waterside Farm, which is ¾ of mile downstream from the accident scene, officials told him that 5,000 gallons went into the ground and another 2,000 went into the creek.
“I remember when I opened the door to these guys, it was just an absolutely overpowering smell of diesel,” added Taylor.
Taylor had nothing but high praise for the first response guys and the volunteer fire departments and really quickly started to clean it up.
The cleanup crews dugout where the oil was and then they waited for more oil to come up from that area and they kept doing that and doing that until they had something like eight dump truck loads of soil and nobody can tell how much they got, but a significant portion went back down In to the water table, according to Taylor.
“It’s no telling where the stuff that was spilled onto the ground went and where exactly it’s going to pop-up,” said Taylor, who last year had his property designated as a wildlife refuge through the National Wildlife Federation. “It will pop-up and hopefully it won’t be in anyone’s well. If that happens, we’re sunk because there’s no municipal water out here.”
The creek behind Taylor’s home looks much better now to the naked eye. When this first happen all of this was red, as Taylor pointed to the creek. “It looked like the scene of some massacre upstream, Taylor said.
EPA and DEQ officials told Taylor that it could be six months to a year before they would know if the area is safe.
The Taylor’s are upset in the fact that no one has done anything in warning the public about the spill and the condition of the creek.
“We have people that fish in this creek and canoe through here, yet there are no warning signs that the creek is contaminated.”
In fact, Taylor said that they had found an oil-covered muskrat and a duck on the creek bank that had died.
Most of the visible fuel – dyed bright red in the refining process – is now gone, but there is still a colored sheen across the water and bubbles of diesel fuel still rises to the surface.
Taylor said that water samples have been taken from area wells for testing and sent to an independent lab.
“Only time will tell on these samples. The water may test “OK” today, but as times goes on, things could change.
When asked if Foster Fuels of Brookneal, who owned the overturned tanker, have been in contact with them, Taylor said, “We spent over two weeks waiting to hear something from Foster Fuels and we didn’t hear anything until after we contacted the Governor’s Office.” Taylor added that the spill was not immediately reported to the EPA, which is required by law.
“These things are bound to happen…but you never expect them to happen in your own backyard, “said Taylor. “But because when it happened and the colder weather and the creek was in pretty good shape, we are hoping that the natural biology of the river system will be able to recover pretty much fully. I am optimistic about that.”
In an email, which was sent to EverythingNRV Sunday night, the Taylor’s wrote: “ We need your help. Please contact Foster Fuels and ask them if they will make a commitment to getting this area cleaned up right. Their contact information is here: http://fosterfuels.com/home.html.
EverythingNRV.com will continue to follow this incident and will post any new information as we receive it.
Click here o see additional photos from the cleanup efforts in our photo gallery.
Photos: (Top left) This is what Big Walker Creek looked like behind the Taylor property shortly after the Valentine's Day accident. (Right) This is what Big Walker Creek looked liked behind the Taylor residence on Saturday, March 1. (Bottom left) Creed Taylor looks out at Big Walker Creek behind his residence in the Whitegate Community of Giles County. (Top left photo courtesy of Creed Taylor. Other photos by David Grimes)
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Photos by Larry Middleton |
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